Picking up - not where things left off, but rather - where things are now.
Lots of beginnings:
New little one in March.
Life with three less in May.
Graduation and moving out in June.
Drivers license in August.
No more elementary school this year - new senior high and middle school-ers.
Little T arrived in March and just yesterday, quite abruptly we were told that he will be reunified with birth dad by Thanksgiving. Gulp. Not that we are not expecting this outcome; we are hoping for it, but also concerned for his safety.
Visits have been consistent and have progressed to being "liberally supervised" by a family member for six to eight hours. There have also been concerns - very recently raised by several involved parties - which seem to go unaddressed by the case worker who is the very person who delivered the news that Little T "should be" home in two months. This person has not attended, supervised, or otherwise been involved with any visits since March (and quite probably many months prior.) Yet this is the person planning the future of Little T.
The case worker has not been there when a case aide was verbally assaulted by birth dad; or when dad was 45 minutes late in returning Little T from a visit; or when I was told in a verbally aggressive manner that I "really need to keep a closer eye on him" (excuse me, but that shunt in his head didn't happen on MY watch), or when he was 25 minutes late to pick up his son and then lied about being there earlier.
Despite the amazing progress that Little T has made - meeting all age appropriate milestones and testing out of all Early Intervention therapies after a prognosis of possibly never walking due to his head injury - he will need to have occasional ongoing medical treatment. There will be appointments which will be need to be scheduled and attended, and phone calls to make to follow through on recommendations. The continued progress of this child will depend on the capacity of the parent to be responsible; which judging from recent activity, is questionable.
So when the case worker schedules on Tuesday to come for a home visit "sometime" on Wednesday; and then gives four hours notice of the appointment time; and then spends all of nine - that's NINE - minutes in our driveway, not checking Little T's bedroom as is expected during all case worker visits, nor even coming in the house; and most of the nine minutes is spent with her "ooh-ing" and "ahh-ing" about how well he is doing so that it's difficult to ask a complete question... Well, that just adds to the concern. As the foster parent it's beneficial to understand what was decided in court, what the visitation plan is - specifically WHEN are the visits, WHERE is the meeting point to drop off and pick up, HOW long am I expected to sit and wait for birth dad, WHO do I contact when it becomes clear that my time and efforts are not respected.
My half-way asked questions were answered with, "We'll have to let you know about next week's visit next week," and "I'm not sure why you need to know about the visitation plan," and "How the visitation progresses has been left up to me." To which I really want to say, "Then why don't YOU show up for a visit or two??"
So we are in the messy middle of the beginning of transitioning Little T back home. Knowing God has a plan for Little T's future and trusting that God is working behind the scenes gives comfort in this situation, and in all the other messy middles that we are living through.
